New Partnership Unites All Fields of HIV Research

Richard D’Aquila, MD, professor of Infectious Diseases is director of the Third Coast Center for AIDS Research, a partnership between Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, the Chicago Department of Public Health and several community organizations.

At Northwestern University, experts in a wide range of medical and academic fields attack HIV from all sides. Now, a new five-year, $6.25 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will help these investigators and others across the city of Chicago work together to slow and stop HIV.

The funding, from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), supports the creation of the Third Coast Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), a partnership between Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, the Chicago Department of Public Health, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, the Alliance of Chicago Community Health Systems and the Center on Halsted.

“The idea behind a CFAR is to provide the glue that brings all different disciplines together,” said director Richard D’Aquila, MD, professor of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “This creates an infrastructure for catalyzing new interdisciplinary grants, services in different content areas of HIV research and seed funding to help new, young investigators and those established in other fields who want to start moving into HIV research for the first time.”

Even before the center was officially funded,Dr. D’Aquila and colleagues began to connect clinical and behavioral researchers with engineers and biologists, contributing to the multidisciplinary team behind a recently awarded $17 million NIH grant to build a drug delivery system for preventing HIV.

Ending the HIV epidemic among young men in Chicago

Dr. D’Aquila and colleagues have already begun to connect clinical and behavioral researchers with engineers and biologists, contributing to the multidisciplinary team behind a recently awarded $17 million NIH grant to build a drug delivery system for preventing HIV.A major goal for the Third Coast CFAR is facilitating research to end the HIV epidemic in Chicago among young men who have sex with men, the only demographic group in which new HIV diagnoses are increasing – 5 percent each year.

“This is a problem throughout the United States. One of the strengths of our center is that our members are already national leaders in studying the health of this population,” said Dr. D’Aquila.

“The Third Coast CFAR has a special focus on reducing the very high rate of new HIV infections among sexual minority young men by catalyzing partnerships and new research that combines the best elements of behavioral and biomedical science across the continuum of prevention to care,” said Mustanski, who is also director of the IMPACT LGBT Health and Development Program. “We will focus on scientific discovery and implementation of approaches to preventing new infections, increasing the proportion of young men who know their HIV status and expanding the benefits of highly effective medical care among those who are HIV positive.”

Every year, the NIH invites all of its CFARs to apply for an administrative supplement that supports early-stage investigators. This year, two faculty from the Third Coast CFAR were awarded the funding: Gregory Phillips, PhD, research assistant professor of Medical Social Sciences at Feinberg, and Brandon Hill, PhD, at the University of Chicago. Each will lead research teams studying aspects of the epidemic in young men who have sex with men.

“To be right at the starting gate and to get not just one, but two, of these very competitive national awards is a huge achievement,” said Dr. D’Aquila, who is also director of the Northwestern Medicine HIV Translational Research Center.

Offering research services to all collaborators

The Third Coast CFAR will provide services through five cores.

A Clinical Sciences Core will include a data and specimen repository of newly diagnosed subjects collected in collaboration with the Center on Halstead community center and a registry of patients with HIV from the partnered university clinics and local federally qualified health centers through the Alliance of Chicago Community Health Services. It will be led by Babafemi Taiwo, MBBS, associate professor of Infectious Diseases, and Ellen Chadwick, MD, professor of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Pediatrics, and David Pitrak, MD, at the University of Chicago.

A Behavioral, Social, and Implementation Sciences Core will provide training and consultation services and work with the Center on Halsted, the Chicago Department of Public Health and community members to provide tools for those studying at-risk populations. It will be led by Judith Moskowitz, PhD, MPH, professor of Medical Social Sciences, and Alida Bouris, PhD, at the University of Chicago.

A Viral Pathogenesis Core will include basic science resources such as laboratory assays and services for virology, immunology, cell/virus imaging and other biological HIV research. It will be led by Tom Hope, PhD, professor of Cell and Molecular Biology, Obstetrics and Gynecology and Biomedical Engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering, and Yoav Gilad, PhD, at the University of Chicago.

A Developmental Core will provide funding and mentoring to support young investigators and those new to HIV research, including awards for pilot projects and community partners that will lead to new NIH research grants. It will be led by John Schneider, MD, MPH, at the University of Chicago, and Mustanski.

An Administrative Core will oversee operations, hold events and assemble new collaborations between investigators in different areas. “We’re a matchmaker,” said Dr. D’Aquila, who will lead the core with Mustanski. “We’re already working with several teams on new NIH trans-disciplinary research grants, and we eagerly welcome any and all inquiries.”

The center will also have a scientific working group for sharing ideas, discussing epidemic trends and identifying innovative strategies to tackle HIV as well as a CFAR research navigator to guide investigators and community partners to available resources that could aid their specific projects. The center plans to open its services, as they are launched, to any HIV researcher across Chicago collaborating with a Third Coast CFAR partner.

“Our ultimate goal is to stop the ongoing spread of HIV that is now under the public’s radar,” D’Aquila said. “The strong support of Feinberg leadership for this mission was critical to our application’s success.”

The Third Coast CFAR is funded by NIH NIAID grant 1P30AI117943-01. The Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Science Institute (NUCATS) provided support and consultation in the application for the grant application. Research support services provided by NUCATS and the University of Chicago Institute of Translational Medicine will augment those of the Third Coast CFAR.

For more on recent breakthroughs and partnerships in HIV and AIDS research, see the News Center’s HIV/AIDS Editor’s Pick, a collection of recent research news from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

About Author

Nora Dunne

Nora Dunne is the publications editor for the medical school's Office of Communications. She edits Northwestern Medicine Magazine and writes news stories about research ranging from basic and translational sciences to public health. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University and is currently earning a master’s degree in integrated marketing communications at Northwestern. nora.dunne@northwestern.edu